Just four months into trading from its Nottingham UK base, XenoGesis Limited has exceeded its initial sales targets by more than 300%. The BioCity Nottingham contract research organisation began trading in early November and was providing laboratory-based drug analysis services to major global pharmaceutical clients from day one.

Started by former Associate Principal Scientist in drug metabolism & pharmacokinetics (DMPK) at AstraZeneca Dr Richard Weaver, the company has also attracted £135,000 investment to enable the purchase of laboratory and IT equipment and to support its marketing activities. The company already employs two senior scientists, Dr Manfred Ismair and Dawn Parkins who worked with Dr Weaver in AstraZeneca, and is set to take on an Associate research scientist in April.

The encouraging sales achievements are the result of several international visits as well as Dr Weaver's considerable reputation in the pharmaceutical sector. XenoGesis specialises in pre-clinical drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK), quantitative bioanalysis and expert interpretation. Their laboratory tests demonstrate how the human body might affect the way a drug behaves. Backing this up with advice on how to modify the chemical structure of a compound to make it more ‘drug-like' makes the XenoGesis service attractive to global drug companies.

Reflecting on the first quarter achievements Dr Weaver says: "We know there is a growing demand in the drug discovery field for the kind of service we offer. More importantly, our growth model is based on building alliances with trusted national and international organisations so we can offer a suite of complementary services in a very cost-effective way. So working together, we provide the best scientifically-planned experiments with the greatest chance of success."

A recent strategic collaboration with Nottingham-based RenaSci will provide clients with both pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) data. The fact that RenaSci and XenoGesis are based in the same building will facilitate the collaboration and enable them to easily hold meetings with joint clients.

Dr Weaver is anticipating a busy year ahead for him and his team: "It is quite unusual for a new company working in this field to get off to such a flying start but we have the support of a strong Board of Directors and staff team, and several international partners. I have just been asked to quote for a major piece of work in the United States so I am hopeful we will create more jobs for top scientists here in Nottingham."

XenoGesis is a co-sponsor of the SMi 7^th Annual ADMET conference in London on 9^th-10^th July 2012. The conference will address the barriers that are currently faced by the PK/PD community and also how recent discoveries have improved the understanding of the mechanisms involved in ADME-Tox. It will also address the new technologies and techniques being developed to overcome the classic physiological barriers to drug bioavailability. Dr Richard Weaver will be speaking, and will chair Day Two of the event.